Riding on the success of its E6 ELIFE smartphone in emerging markets like China and India, it was natural for Gionee to carve out a miniature variant. Blurry spy-shots of the new Gionee E6 Mini were leaked to the web by a Chinese publication, along with better-than-expected specs.

To begin with, the E6 Mini isn't all that miniature compared to the 5-inch E6. It offers a 4.5-inch screen with HD (1280 x 720 pixels) resolution, compared to the full-HD (1920 x 1080) 5-inch screen on the original. In the imaging department, you get an 8-megapixel primary camera, with a 1.3-megapixel front-facing one.

Things get interesting under the hood. Gionee made practically no compromises with the E6 Mini. The phone is driven by a MediaTek MT6589T SoC, with a 1.50 GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU, and Adreno 305 GPU. Also featured are 1 GB of RAM, 16 GB of expandable storage, and Android 4.2.2 "Jelly Bean" operating system, with Gionee's homebrew Amigo UX. The Chinese variants will gel with the TS-CDMA networks there, while elsewhere, it will be tuned to support up to HSPA+ 21.1 Mbps cellular data bandwidths.

Unlike the boxy E6 ELIFE, the E6 Mini features a more ingot-shaped body, with a curved and consistent side and rear. Expected to begin selling this September, the E6 Mini could be priced at the equivalent of $275.